Prompt: Keeping connected through COVID-19

Senior Category

-Together-
Together,
Not literary: together together
But sharing the same motivation, the same spirit
But finds a common ground for everyone to believe
Navigating other’s hearts
Touch them but not by touching them.

One can isolate the body, yet strangely not the soul
The soul can fly back to Vietnam – to where her heart goes:
With the food her mother serves
Bun cha, banh mi, and spring rolls
“Better fruits than ice cream for dessert”
With afternoons at friends’ house,
Their laughter spills out the window
Carried by winds, by seas, by the fairies
To her lovely new home, Singapore that is
Or not necessarily through that, but through pride
The kind of pride when she explains “I’m Vietnamese”
The kind of pride that travels like sand, blooms like flower, spread like wild fire
And for that, they remember – the Vietnamese girl, short hair, strange name
“How do I pronounce it again?”
It’s okay, it’s the spirit that matters the most.

Keeping connected.
Despite being nine hundred and twenty-five miles apart,
Still seeing, waving at each other every day,
Though no more good night kisses
Still a bed time story, then good night wishes
Whether it be through Zalo, Zoom, Skype or anything else.
What counts is that the tradition persists
In face of distance, of COVID
Because keeping connected means so much more than the mundane,
Ordinary human touch
It is the essence of love, warmth
And all that goes in between.

She discovered family away from family

She finds comfort in the new friends she made
They surround her, gave the warmth, love she needed
Fill the holes within her heart, her soul.

And so again, I ask

Whoever dared question the powerful human connection?
Like water, we cling onto each other
Like wolves, we go in packs
Your community shapes who you are and what you get.
So, whether brown, yellow or white
Or whatever languages you write
This, the age of Internet
Doesn’t stop simply because of COVID.
This, the age of globalization
Bond people – places to places, ages to ages, races to races
Cross borders, seas, oceans
This is how we show devotion
And care, love, for those who need it.
This is how we stay connected during COVID,
And find strength in the relationships we’re in.